English

Noun

Translations

A potato chip or crisp is a thin slice of
potato, deep fried or
baked until crisp. Potato chips serve as
an appetizer, side dish, or
snack.
Commercial varieties are packaged for sale, usually in bags. The
simplest chips of this kind are just cooked and salted, but
manufacturers can add a wide variety of seasonings (mostly made using
herbs, spices, cheese, artificial additives or
MSG).
Chips are an important part of the snack food
market in English-speaking countries and many other Western
nations.

There is little consistency in the English
speaking world for names of fried potato cuttings. North
American English uses 'chips' for the above mentioned dish --
this term is also used in continental Europe -- and
sometimes 'crisps' for the same made from batter, and 'French
fries' for the hot crispy batons with a soft core. In the
United
Kingdom and Ireland, 'crisps'
are the brittle slices eaten at room temperature and 'chips' refer
to the hot dish (as in 'fish and
chips'). In Australia,
New
Zealand and some parts of South
Africa, both forms of potato product are simply known as
'chips', as are the larger "home-style" potato chips. Sometimes the
distinction is made between 'hot chips' (French fried potatoes) and
'packet chips'.

Non-potato based chips also exist. Kumara
(sweet
potato) chips are eaten in New Zealand
and Japan;
parsnip crisps are
available in the United
Kingdom. India is famous for a large number of localized 'chips
shops', selling not only potato chips but also other varieties such
as plantain chips, yam
chips and even carrot chips. In Australia, a new variety of
Pringles made from rice have been released and marketed as lower in
fat than their potato counterparts. In many countries potato chips
have been criticized because of their high fat percentage (approx. 35%) and
their acrylamide
content.

Origins

It was believed that the original potato chip
recipe was created by African
American chef George Crum,
at Moon's Lake House near
Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 24,
1853. He was
fed up with a customer (the popular myth wrongly identifies him as
Cornelius
Vanderbilt) who continued to send his fried potatoes back,
claiming that they were too thick and soggy. Crum decided to slice
the potatoes so thin that they couldn't be eaten with a fork, nor
fried normally in a pan, so he decided to stir-fry the potato
slices. Against Crum's expectation, the guest was ecstatic about
the new chips. They became a regular item on the lodge's menu under
the name "Saratoga Chips." They soon became popular throughout
New York
and New
England. This story was first popularized by The Official French Fries
Pages; it has since been recanted and corrected on that site's
History of
French Fries page. Since potatoes are 80% water it takes
approximately 4 pounds of potatoes to make one pound of potato
chips.

One version of this story credits Dr. Kellogg
(the brother of the Dr. Kellogg who founded the company which bears
the family name) as the customer who wanted them thinner.

An earlier reference to what are now known as
potato chips as Alexis Soyer's recipe in "Shilling Cookery for
People" (1845). Here raw potatoes, "almost shavings" are fried.
Earlier still, Mary
Randolph's book "The Virginia House-wife" (1824) has a part
titled "To fry Sliced Potatoes" here raw potatoes are cut into
slices or thin shavings and fried "till they are crisp."

Before the airtight sealed bag was developed,
chips were stored in barrels or tins which allowed them to go stale
and damp. Then Laura
Scudder invented the potato chip bag by ironing together two
pieces of waxed paper,
thereby creating an airtight seal and keeping the chips fresh until
opened. In 1934 Akron, Ohio, potato chip maker K.T. Salem was the
first to distribute chips in glassine waxed paper bags.
Today, chips are packaged in plastic bags, with nitrogen gas
blown in prior to sealing in order to lengthen shelf life and
provide protection against crushing.

The owners of the restaurant Schweizerhaus
in Vienna's
largest permanent amusement park Wurstelprater
claim it's their site where what they call Rohscheiben (raw slices)
was invented. Whether it's an exaggeration or the story itself was
the invention - what they do prove is that fresh and deep-fryer-hot
potato slices have a special taste.

Economy

The global potato chips market generated total
revenues of 16.4 billion dollars in 2005. This accounted for 35.5%
of the total savory snacks market in that year (46.1 billion
dollars).

Seasoned chips

Initially, chips went unseasoned until a twist of
salt was placed inside the bag, to be added when required. This
idea was originated by the
Smiths Potato Crisps Company Ltd formed in 1920 . Frank Smith
originally packaged them in greaseproof paper bags which were then
sold around London. To give them some flavor, he would also include
a twist of salt. The idea was abandoned when the salting and
flavoring process developed by Tayto was applied to
crisps during manufacture. Walkers revived the
idea of 'salt in a bag', following their take over of Smiths (UK)
in 1979, with their Salt 'n' Shake potato crisps.

The potato chip remained unseasoned until an
innovation by Joe "Spud" Murphy (1923 – 2001), the owner of an
Irish crisp company called Tayto, who developed
a technology to add seasoning in the 1950s. Though he had a small
company, consisting almost entirely of his immediate family who
prepared the crisps, the owner had long proved himself an
innovator. After some trial and
error, he produced the world's first seasoned crisps, "Cheese
and Onion" and Salt & Vinegar.

The innovation became an overnight sensation in
the food industry, with the heads of some of the biggest potato
chip companies in the United States heading to the small Tayto
company to examine the product and to negotiate the rights to use
the new technology. When eventually the Tayto company was sold, it
made the owner and the small family group who had changed the face
of potato chip manufacturing very wealthy. Companies worldwide
sought to buy the rights to Tayto's technique.

The Tayto innovation changed the whole nature of
the potato chip. Later chip manufacturers added natural and
artificial seasonings to potato chips, with varying degrees of
success. A product that had had a large appeal to a limited market
on the basis of one seasoning now had a degree of market
penetration through vast numbers of seasonings. Various other
seasonings of chips are sold in different locales, including the
original "Cheese and Onion", produced by Tayto, which remains
by far Ireland's biggest manufacturer of crisps.

Perhaps the most extreme version of seasoned
chips were the fruit flavored chips that were (very) briefly sold
in Canada in the late seventies (in orange, cherry and grape
flavors). These were not a success, and they were rapidly
discontinued.

The market in United
Kingdom is dominated by Walkers which is
known for its wide variety of crisps. Typical examples include salt
& vinegar, cheese & onion, prawn
cocktail, worcester sauce, roast chicken, beef & onion,
smoky bacon, lamb & mint, ham & mustard, barbecue, BBQ rib,
tomato ketchup, sausage & ketchup, pickled onion, Branston
Pickle, Marmite and more
exotic seasonings such as Thai sweet chilli, roast pork &
creamy mustard sauce, lime and thai spices, lamb with Moroccan
spices, sea salt and cracked black pepper, turkey & bacon,
caramelized onion & sweet balsamic vinegar, stilton &
cranberry and mango chilli. Kettle Foods Ltd's range of thick-cut
crunchy crisps include gourmet flavors: Mexican Limes with a hint
of Chilli, Salsa with Mesquite, Buffalo Mozzarella Tomato and
Basil, Mature Cheddar with Adnams Broadside Beer, Soulmate Cheeses
and Onion, and other previously listed flavors. Most seasonings
contain only vegetarian-friendly
ingredients, although some recent seasonings such as lamb &
mint sauce contain meat extracts. In the early 1980s, there even
existed 'Hedgehog flavoured
crisps', these were widely on sale and received large publicity.
McCoys
Crisps are also popular in the UK. In Northern
IrelandTayto (NI)
Ltd. dominate the market. This company is entirely unrelated to
the Tayto company in the Republic of Ireland.

In Ireland,
the common varieties of crisps are mostly the same or similar to
the ones sold in the UK. However in Ireland, Tayto are synonymous
with crisps after the Tayto brand. Walkers crisps were
launched there several years ago, but have failed to dominate the
market.

In Mexico, many flavors
feature spiciness. Often, a consistent seasoning is lime mixed with another flavor in
addition to chorizo
flavored chips.

In New Zealand
the most popular varieties of potato chips are Ready Salted, Salt
n' Vinegar and Chicken.

In Colombia, the five
main flavors of chips are Natural (Ready Salted), BBQ, Chicken,
Mayonnaise and
Lemon.

In Spain,
the most popular flavors are plain (fried with olive oil and
salted), and ham
flavor.

Similar foods

Another type of potato chip, notably the
Pringles
and Lay's
Stax brands, is made by extruding or pressing a dough
made from ground potatoes into the patented potato chip shape
before frying. This makes chips that are very uniform in size and
shape, which allows them to be stacked and packaged in rigid tubes.
In America, the official term for Pringles is "crisps", but they
are rarely referred to as such. Conversely Pringles may be termed
"potato chips" in Britain, to distinguish them from traditional
"crisps".

Some companies have also marketed baked potato chips as an
alternative with lower fat content. Additionally, some varieties of
fat-free chips have been made using artificial, and indigestible,
fat substitutes. These became well-known in the media when an
ingredient many contained, Olestra, was linked
in some individuals to abdominal discomfort and loose stools.

The success of crisp fried potato chips also
gave birth to fried corn chips,
with such brands as Fritos, CC's and Doritos dominating
the market. "Swamp chips" are similarly made from a variety of root
vegetables such as parsnips, rutabagas and carrots. Japanese-style variants
include extruded chips, like products made from rice or cassava. In South Indian snack cuisine,
there is an item called vadam which is a chip made of an extruded
rice/sago base.

There are many other products which might be
called "crisps" in Britain, but would not be classed as "potato
chips" because they aren't made with potato and/or aren't chipped
(for example, Wotsits).

Kettle-style chips are traditionally made by the
"batch-style" process, where all chips are fried all at once at a
low temperature profile, and continuously raked to prevent them
from sticking together. There has been some development recently
where Kettle-style chips are able to be produced by a
"continuous-style" process (like a long conveyor belt), creating
the same old-fashioned texture and flavor of a real kettle-cooked
chip.

In recipes

In American cuisine, a whole class of recipes
exists that use crushed potato chips, often as one would use
seasoned bread crumbs. Recipes include those for cookies, pies,
breadings for meatloaves and hamburgers, crumb toppings for
casseroles and soups, and in sauces or dips, among others. Dipping
chips in a sour cream based dip is popular. Putting hot sauce on
top of potato chips is popular in Mexico and parts of Texas.
Putting potato chips inside of a hoagie is a popular tradition in
Philadelphia.
In the American South, crushed potato chips are sometimes used to
bread chicken before frying.

A cheap recipe is the chip sandwich made from a base of
two slices of white sandwich bread generously spread with
mayonnaise. As many
potato chips as possible are heaped on one of the slices, then the
second slice is placed on top and pushed down hard until all the
potato chips are crushed. This is a snack version of the
traditional "chip butty",
made with sliced, buttered bread and freshly made French
fries. "Crisp sandwiches" are also popular in the UK – a
student favorite sees them made with Vitalite spread;
in Ireland white bread is spread on both sides with plenty of
butter, before being filled with crisps and employing the
aforementioned hand-crushing technique to ensure the contents stick
to the butter and remain in the sandwich. Potato chips,
particularly salt and vinegar , are also a possible addition to
tuna
salad sandwiches. The chips are layered on top of the tuna as
an additional filling.

In New Zealand, potato chips are added to bread
with thinly spread Marmite to make a
"Marmite And Chip Sandwich". The Australian version of the sandwich
uses Vegemite instead
of Marmite.

Not strictly a recipe, but another method of
preparing crisps is to keep the crisps in the refrigerator, prior
to serving. Commonly called ‘cold crisps’, they have a mixed level
of acceptance, with some finding them abhorrent, and others seeing
‘cold crisps’ as the correct method of preparation. A common fault
in vending
machines often results in ‘cold crisps’ being issued, even if
crisps at room temperature were desired. In parts of Canada, it is
also common to store potato chips in the freezer, and eat them
while still frozen.

In popular culture

There is in the world at least one myth
surrounding potato chips, the myth of the Wish Chip. The definition
and use of a wish chip will vary from region to region, and even
from person to person. In general a wish chip is any potato chip
that has somehow become folded in half during the manufacturing
process. It is generally believed amongst those who practice the
ritual that the wish chip, when ingested in some specific fashion,
will have the power to grant the wish that has been specified
during ingestion. The ritual generally involved consists simply of
fitting the whole chip in one's mouth and then chewing it either
before,after or while the wish is made, the timing and manner in
which the wish is made is highly variable.